It must have been the weekend when everything went wrong at this hotel.
I can only agree about the staff, friendly and helpful. The food great, best breakfast experience I have had for quite a while. That is where it ends.
The room was great, but the thick with dust headboard and the same next to the bedside cabinet was not nice. First night no hot water, which seemed to be the norm for everyone and the room only seemed to warm up at certain times. I too was given excuses.
Can confirm that I had the same experience waiting for the room to be serviced, had to call down to find out when it would be done, that was at around 3.30pm, was told it could be between 9-5pm, which to be honest is not good enough, I have never stayed in a hotel where the room has not been serviced when I have returned in the afternoon.
The Spa was poor, pool was cold, the hot tub was warm at best and the steam room had a stale smell.
Had a treatment in the spa, but that didn't end well for me.
Overall the experience was very disappointing.

Having just returned from the Raithwaite Hall hotel, I cannot speak highly enough of the place. We were treated impeccably by every single staff member we came into contact with. The staff could not do enough for us. The decor is simple but attractive and our room was large with a large bathroom and great shower.

We ate in the restaurant and were not disappointed. I am vegan which can sometimes cause problems and i warned the hotel in advance about this and the chef sent me a suggested menu in advance which sounded very appealing. And tasted amazing! When we were having afternoon tea on the previous afternoon the chef even came out to the bar to see if she could make something more appropriate for me. Her words 'I just want to please...' were very welcome and the salad made for me was delicious. For breakfast, equally the chef was extremely accommodating.

We used the gym and pool and both were pleasant, I personally found the gym a little warm even though the air con was switched on but that may just be personal taste.

We also had a couple of treatments in the spa which were great, if a little expensive.

We have booked another night in April already....I can't wait to go back.

In the interest of fairness, we were disappointed with certain aspects but thoroughly enjoyed others, and we'll make sure that we give the positives first. We did have one specific complaint but would like to say now that this was resolved to our satisfaction upon checkout.

The good stuff!; The location, not far from the beach, great for blustery walks! Sure it will be great in Spring / Summer. Sandsend is a great spot - couple of nice cafes, shops and an art gallery. The staff were fantastic always smiling, helpful and polite - dealt with any problems immediately. Breakfast and Dinner were both superb, well prepared, lots of choice and some great local produce.

Unfortunately, now the negatives! As discussed above, we had one specific problem, namely the near complete lack of hot water in our room (and the spa showers) for our 2 night 'luxury retreat'. A combination of excuses from a broken boiler to too many people taking a shower at the same time didn't really help. This may of course be just teething problems, the hotel is still quite new but certainly one to watch. However we must stress that this was resolved to our satisfaction upon checkout.

A few other things we came across or noticed.........
We were originally given a 3rd floor room (that we changed!) which had a shower only, and no view, just 'velux' skylights in the sloping roof. We didn't expect this in a brand new purpose built hotel offering a luxury retreat! Architecturally, we saw no need or reason why this was so - some of the suites in the ground had what looked like cutout balconies sitting within the roof - looked great.

We were also surprised that on both a Sunday and Monday morning, there were not enough tables for all guests at breakfast, guests having to 'hold' in the nearby bar. Similarly, the pool area did not seem big enough.

Overall, the hotel did not seem to match its own hype in SOME areas, we did not feel that the fit out of the rooms and bathroom was quite what we expected.

However, with some tweaking and resolution of apparent teething issues, this hotel should become good. At the right deal or price, we may be back!

We had high expectations for our w/e away at this hotel, as a birthday treat for my husband. We planned to do some walking, take in the fresh air and enjoy the scenery. The setting is lovely, the staff were courteous and friendly and it was very clean. The breakfasts were excellent too. We had booked a Garden Suite, (not cheap at £250 per night B&B!!) but were rather disappointed with the layout of the accommodation. The ground floor of this suite consists of the bathroom, the living room and wardrobe; the bedroom area is up the open plan stairs and has sloping ceilings. This is not made clear on the website. We didn't like having to go downstairs in the night to use the bathroom and kept banging our heads on the low ceiling! Also our clothes were in the wardrobe downstairs! Our other main complaint was how cold the room was! We were told it had underfloor heating,which would warm up soon(!?) but by late Saturday afternoon it was still very cold. We were eventually given a portable electric heater, but the bathroom was so cold you didn't want to linger in the shower for long! No heated towel rail, no hooks for your bathrobe. The underfloor heating system is clearly inefficient and did not give us the warm welcome we had hoped for!
We walked in Whitby on Saturday for the day, returning the our room late afternoon. However, the room had not been "serviced" during our absence! It was now 3:30, and when we questioned this we were given various excuses, eventually being told that the cleaner could come any time between 9am and 5pm! As we wanted a shower and a rest after our walking, we didn't want to sit in the bar til after 5pm, waiting for the room to be cleaned. Eventually, I asked could we just have some clean towels and the bins emptied, and not to bother with the rest!
On arrival on Friday evening, we asked to book a meal in the hotel restaurant for the Saturday evening, but were told the only time we could have a table would be 9:45pm, as the restaurant was very busy. Far too late for us. Eventually, they said we could have a table at 6:30. Whilst the meal itself was fine, though quite expensive, the restaurant was cold, there was little ambience and a crying toddler! We took our coffee though to the bar area, where it was warmer, but struggled to find a seat. Eventually we went back to our room for 8:30 and watched tv! It would appear that many non-residents use the hotel bar and restaurant, which is good for the hotel, but the management also need to consider are there enough tables/seating for the residents too.
Personally, I think we paid a lot of money for a cold room, so not exactly relaxing surroundings. The hotel could do with employing more cleaning staff, so people don't have to wait til 5pm to have their room cleaned! (My own en-suite bathroom at home has direct access from my bedroom, is clean, warm and has a heated towel rail!!) We were looking forward to some relaxtion in comfortable surroundings, but this was not to be! I didn't expect to have to make my own bed at that price either, or have to pay £4.40 to have the Sunday Times delivered to the room on Sunday morning! The paper costs £2.20, so a hefty delivery charge!